A national Muslim activist movement named “Abandon Biden” is organizing groups in nine swing states to prevent President Joe Biden from winning reelection in November.
“Abdel Salam, 48, is among a group of Muslim activists, including several Minnesotans, who are organizing in nine swing states in opposition to Biden’s re-election. The group’s leaders say they want to politically punish the president for what they describe as enabling mass civilian casualties in Gaza,” the Star Tribune reported.
Salam, a human rights professor at the University of Minnesota, left his job at the university in April to help start the movement.
“The big gift that would come out of punishing the president is that an entire party … becomes a pro-Palestinian party against the occupation and will begin to look for equity much more aggressively than we have in the past,” Salam said.
The group’s website, Abandonbiden24.com, notes they are targeting Arizona, Florida, Georgia, Michigan, Minnesota, North Carolina, Nevada, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.
Earlier last month, American Faith reported that tensions between the Biden administration and the Muslim community have intensified amid President Biden’s decision to continue sending weapons to Israel for its military campaign in Gaza.
A Palestinian American doctor reportedly walked out of a meeting between Muslim leaders and Biden at the time, expressing frustration over the administration’s response to the crisis in Gaza.
Dr. Thaer Ahmad, who volunteered in Khan Younis during the recent fighting in Gaza, told NBC News that he left the meeting “to let the administration feel the way that we felt this past six months and kind of get up and walk away from them.”
Before departing, Ahmad handed a letter to President Biden written by an 8-year-old orphan in Rafah, as reported by NBC News.
The meeting was organized after the White House canceled its Iftar banquet, opting instead for a staff-only dinner with a separate meeting for Muslim leaders. This adjustment came at the request of leaders who believed a dinner was not an appropriate setting to discuss the suffering in Gaza. Many leaders reportedly declined the White House’s invitation.